He wants to bring federal spending down to its 1998 levels, a drop that would constitute about a 57 percent reduction.“Let’s get federal spending below 1998 levels,” he says in the below video.

Bernier used to work for one-time Rep. Rob Simmons (R-CT). He ran for the 2010 GOP nomination and lost, so he’s not necessarily the standard bearer for the Republican party in that district. But if spending is an issue in that primary — and it will be — this is quite an opening bid. And this is a district that the GOP seems to think it can be competitive in.